About 85% of schools maintained a behavioral threat assessment team this school year to identify students at potential risk for violent or harmful behavior toward themselves or others. That's up from 82% of schools during the 2022-23 school year, according to data recently released by the National Center for Education Statistics.
While the percentages didn't vary tremendously by region, schools in the Midwest reported the lowest level of behavioral threat assessment teams in the 2023-24 school year, at 81%, and schools in the South had the highest at 88%. Of the schools with such teams, 71% had identified students at potential risk to themselves, and 49% had identified students at potential risk to others, according to the survey data collected in April.
Several experts and organizations, including the U.S Department of Homeland Security and the National Association of School Psychologists, recommend schools have threat assessment teams to help prevent school violence or student self-harm. Nine states required school threat assessment teams as of January, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
Supporters of this approach say the structured, multidisciplinary process helps teams make unbiased decisions and provide the appropriate response and intervention. They also say this strategy can help keep law enforcement from getting unnecessarily involved.
But opponents, including some civil rights and disability rights organizations, say threat assessment investigations disproportionately target students with disabilities, students of color and students from low-income families. That has long-term negative educational consequences for the students investigated, they said.
Experts recommend several best practices, including having a special education professional on the team and training team members to understand there is no certain profile of a student who can cause harm.
Dive Awards
